To think that surely Rayner has to go.

[Blankscreen]

Well well well.

So now it emerges that Rayner rearranged her property affairs and declared to HMRC that her new flat in Brighton is her main residence and saved £40k on the SDLT bill as a result.

She has then apparently declared to the local councils the complete opposite.

I'm sure slimeball Kier will defend and say it was perfectly legal blah blah blah.

Not to mention she has a grace and favour house funded by tax payers in London as her constituency office is so far away. Yet she 'lives' in Brighton - surely she could just commute that distance like may others do every day.

Surely she has to go.

The flag wavers are in Boris’s gang surely

Then she should have paid the relevant tax on the Hove property when she bought it

She didn’t. She declared Brighton incorrectly to avoid a £40,000 tax bill

That’s the point !!

( Brighton , Hove, wherever. It’s irrelevant for those who are arguing the toss about exact location. It’s not her main residence )

She paid the relevant tax

She didn't own another property when she bought the flat in Hove.

That is the point!!

This makes it very clear.

https://skywriter.blue/pages/did:plc:uxg2d3knt2sk5f52binuyuow/post/3lxkgz6oolo2c

@Efacsen
its nonsense to argue the case over whether it’s Brighton or Hove. It’s not the point at all.

It would be appear unusual to say the least to claim that one’s primary residence is one you don’t own, but that is one owned by your ex husband. And by doing so avoid paying council tax on your grace and favour flat but instead expecting the public to pick up the tab. It’s unusual, but not unheard of for an MP not to live in their constituency. It’s also unusual to claim that one’s principal residence for CGT purposes is one’s seaside property, when one works and has a flat in London. Not illegal, but unusual…especially when one also says that one’s primary residence for council tax purposes is a house you don’t own or use at all.

Now, primary and principal are different (though I think they’re missing a trick by not making them the same). For someone in the public eye to play fast and loose with council tax and HMRC either shows arrogance (probably, we are talking about an MP and government minister) or stupidity/naivety (possibly - but she’s played that card on the previous debacle surrounding her use of right to buy). And given the housing crisis in Brighton & Hove it all just seems a bit tawdry. There’ll be the usual Labour shills proclaiming ‘nothing to see here’. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should however!

edited to say that, as she doesn’t own another property at the moment the CGT point above is wrong. But the council tax optics are reminiscent of the house flipping that many MPs did which was all banned in the expenses scandal of whenever that was!

You would think the woman had bought Buckingham Palace! It is a 3 bed walk up flat in Hove! After a divorce. How dare the Northern ginger lass get herself a flat!

So here’s the tactics she used

As the Telegraph stated, entirely legal

See my post above and @Tryingtokeepgoing s excellent post

Given how loud she’s been in the past regarding people who play the system she’s a hypocrite

When it means spending her own money instead of someone else’s, it turns out tax isn’t such a good thing. She is such a good left winger but she didn’t leap at the chance to help others! I guess that is job of other tax payers, the meanie ones who vote Tory, not people like her.

deprecate in what way

the King according to yourself likes AR

he is also a known tax dodger … pointing out a similarity they have there isn’t much else they have in common

keep defending AR she shall need it as one thing Labour MP’s absolutely can not get away with is behaving like corrupt Tory MP’s and most who vote Labour expect better as we do not want that type of person in government

I would have thought you would too

Yeah, I’m not sure I’m any clearer about the declarations and the tax payable, and why her actions aren’t hypocritical, after reading that Bluesky post. I’m not sure it’s quite the killer argument that the pp thinks it is.

But I’m not against money-savvy Labour people. And AR does have an engaging ‘fuck it all’ attitude about her.

(Bluesky 🙄 - that’s got to be the saddest social media platform ever. A place that only exists because the left couldn’t dominate Twitter/X any longer. A sort of SM refugee camp for aged Trots, social science lecturers and shouty students.)

So, she should have paid tax she didn't owe?

She should pay council tax that is owed on the flat in London, as other occupiers of the flat have :)

She has made money on sale of council house her self and made it more difficult for council tenants in November 24 to buy their homes She's now made a lot more money by not telling the truth about her main home And she and Rachel thought it was a big deal Borris had a party in lockdown He wasn't making things more difficult for the working class I suppose her next move is to make it harder for second home owners

The flat she uses in Admiralty House in Whitehall has been used by numerous deputy PMs before her – and keeping a taxpayer funded London residence is standard practice for MPs.

Labour isn’t traditional Labour anymore so yes you’re right currently it is a Labour MP Jas Athwal with Jeremy Hunt not far behind. Personally I think there should be stricter rules on who can be an MP and a landlord especially when there can be conflicts of interests.

It has been used by other, correct. But when it has been their primary residence they have paid the council tax, not us. Because the rules for MPs are that they pay tax in council tax on their primary residence (which is generally in the constituency or in London) and they can claim for the other (which is either in their constituency or in London).

What Rayner is doing is claiming that her primary residence is in her constituency. Which is fine. Except she doesn’t own it and, unless something else comes out of the woodwork as part of the explanation) has no council tax liability at all. She’s then claiming that her actual home is in Brighton; which, unusually but not completely unheard of, isn’t in the constituency or in London. And it’s not even close to the constituency.

So, she’s paying single council tax in Brighton (presumably with the 25% discount and none in London. When she should, per parliamentary rules, be paying the council tax in either London or the constituency. Where her only option is London, as she doesn’t have a council tax bill in the constituency. And as she doesn’t have a house in the constituency, paying double council tax in Brighton. Or, drop the charade that her primary residence is the constituency, get us to pay for the flat in London and pay double in Brighton as a second home :)

My late husband and I have worked hard enough to have 3 properties. The cheapest of which is in London, and is what I’d call ‘home’. It also has the lowest council tax. Because it’s home that is where I get the 25% council tax discount. I could save a fortune by declaring one of the others my primary residence for council tax, and my PPR. I spend an equal amount of time in each. But I don’t, because it doesn’t feel right. And I’m not in the public eye. As I say, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

You own 3 properties, Rayner owns 1

And I pay tax on all of them :)

Same as Rayner then

It's a non story

Sorry. I pay the correct amount of tax on all of them. She doesn’t.

Council tax, as you know, is not linked to ownership, but whether you occupy the property or not. I reckon she’s dodging either a couple of grand on Admiralty Arch, or 3 grand or so on the second home premium in Brighton by claiming her primary residence is elsewhere That bothers me. Maybe it doesn’t bother you - we all have different standards. But when a far left union supporter dodges tax while a centrist tax payer pays what’s due I think I’m allowed to question their morals. And clearly other do too.

You reckon she is dodging tax?

The newspaper articles all state she pays the correct tax. The Tories agree there is no suggestion she has broken any laws,

I am saying she has not paid the right amount of council tax. I haven’t mentioned stamp duty, which is what I believe the newspaper articles are referring to. I’m not sure what the Tories have to do with it. If you disagree with my assessment of council tax due per the rules that’s fine; but it’d be helpful if you could explain why